Life Is Beautiful. (1998). Melampo Cinematografica.

Roberto Benigni as the writer, director, and star of Life is Beautiful sends us on an amazing and heart-wrenching journey of love. We are flown to the moon and plummeted into the depths of hell.
Guido (Benigni) innocently begins life anew in a town in Tuscany in 1939, where he is constantly and literally running into Dora (Benigni's real-life wife, Nicoletta Braschi), whom he always greets with an enthusiastic "Buongiorno Principessa". He is immediately taken with her; and he intrigues her. Dora is from a high-society, wealthy family. She is, without love, engaged to a local official who holds the key to the bookstore Guido wants to open in town. In an attempt to get attention from Dora, Guido poses as a fascist official sent to the school where Dora teaches to give a speech on the superiority of the Aryan race. His Chaplin-esque performance at the school and an accidental, romantic, and rainy night seals Guido in her heart. Soon after, they ride away on horseback together.

In the next scene, Dora and Guido have a son, Giosue, who is soon to be five years old. Guido has managed to get his bookstore open, and Dora is still teaching. Tuscany has become a place quite frightening for Jews. Notices on windows read, "No dogs or Jews allowed." Giosue reads these notices and asks his father what they mean. Guido, in his ever-present cleverness and love, tells his son that anybody can put up a sign, and perhaps tomorrow they will put up such a sign in their own window, "No Spiders and Visigoth's".

On the eve of Giosue's fifth birthday, Guido and his son are taken from their home and boarded on a train to be deported. Dora follows them to the station and insists on being let on the train. Giosue is very confused, and Guido once again comes through with love. He explains to his son that they are playing a game that he very carefully set up so that his son could win a prize _ the much-admired tank that Giosue has been wanting. Most of the Germans do not understand Italian, and Guido is able to get away with making small, intermittent wisecracks to assure the advancement of the "game". Up to this point, the film is filled with an incredible tension as you wait for the inevitable to happen. When it does, you find yourself reacting with tears and smiles, often at the same time.

Arriving at the concentration camp after a hellish journey, the "game" appears to be over. Dora is separated from the family. Guido and Giosue are sent to nasty, dank, and overcrowded barracks without food.

A German guard comes to the barracks asking for an interpreter to explain the camp rules. Guido, in his unfailing optimism and need to protect his son, volunteers to interpret _ even though he does not understand German. With improvisation, he "interprets" more rules of the "game"! He explains to an entire barrack of astonished prisoners how the point system works: You earn points for silence, for not asking for jam and bread, for not asking for your Mama (a heart breaker), and for anything you accomplish that keeps you out of trouble. The goal is to achieve 1000 points, then you win the shiny new tank. Giosue is made to feel that he and his Dad are teammates, them against the world. Little did he know how true that was.

Every day poses a new challenge for Guido to keep up the game. He is sent each day to carry anvils for melting, but tells his son that he is playing games and trying to win more points. One day Giosue comes to the plant where Guido works to tell his father that he ran away because he does not want to shower with the rest of the children. Guido, not understanding the implications of the word "shower" tries to send his son off with the rest of the children. Giosue is persistent, and they agree that he will hide at the plant until the end of the day. Giosue then does not understand why there are no longer any children to play with. He is told they are hiding because they want to steal all of Giosue's points.

As the game gets more difficult, it is evident in Guido's eyes and body. Starvation, tortuous labor, and unbearable sadness slowly drains him of enthusiasm and energy. However, the entire camp shares a moment of joy when Guido takes advantage of an unguarded loudspeaker system. Guido smuggles Giosue into the room where tears, smiles, laughs, and heartbreak are intermingled when Guido begins a message to his love, Dora, with "Buongiorno Principessa, I dream of you every night." Shaking sobs emerge as Giosue exclaims "Mama!"

A German doctor that Guido knew before the war arrives at the camp to inspect the prisoners, deciding who will live and who will not. They connect, and the doctor secures Guido a job waiting on the Nazis at their camp. Doctor Lessing indicates that he wants to talk in private to Guido, and he believes the doctor wants to help him escape. His heart soars at the prospect. In fact, the doctor only wants Guido to help him solve a riddle that has been bothering him. The disappointment and disgust is physically apparent in Guido. While he does not seem to fully recover from this setback, he maintains what he can for the love of Giosue, and the belief they will be reunited as a family.

"Life is Beautiful," is an experience that causes emotions to fill your heart, and then to break it. At some point I no longer realized there were subtitles that had to be read. I would not have imagined I could lose myself so completely inside a foreign film. I am in awe of the masterpiece Roberto Benigni has constructed. The second time I saw the movie, I was able to observe the audience reaction and know that I am not alone in my feelings. This film has been called "a concentration camp comedy." To call it so is an insult and an injury.

To fall so completely in love with another person, and to watch it happen on screen is a gift to us. Benigni's answer to the question "what is it like to direct your real life wife?" was "Direct her? You cannot direct the moon!" This man has obviously found his muse.

When it comes to the horrors of the camps, he writes from the memories his father has given him. His father, although not Jewish, was imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen labor camp for two years before Roberto was born. A parent would go to any lengths to secure the happiness and well being of their child. To express that love, Benigni has invented an ingenious solution to the atrocities that befell real-life Jews and their children.

Roberto Benigni had studied to be a priest, but I do not think the priesthood could have contained him. He is a generous, loving, imaginative, and deeply emotional man that we have been lucky enough to share a part of. The film he has created is an event that goes well beyond entertainment; it goes to your soul.

Jody Cacciatore
HGPS 201 Student